Vol. 7 No. 5 (2020)
Space and Culture, India

Themed Issue

Social Realist Ontology for Analysing BRICS Educational Governance: A Higher Education Perspective

Published 2020-05-08

  • Oscar Eybers

Oscar Eybers
University of Pretoria

Special Issue

Abstract

This study advocates a social realist ontological framework as an effective, analytical blueprint for identifying problems and solutions in BRICS, educational governance systems; specifically as related to the higher education domain. The methods of the study include a textual analysis and description of a social realist ontology to illustrate how it may be applied towards mapping human experiences, including our undergoing processes of educational governance and their tangible outcomes in society. The study also highlights media and scholarly texts from BRICS nations to illustrate shared, yet contextually diverse educational challenges in the tertiary system. The value of comparing contemporary BRICS-related educational challenges, within a social realist ontology, is that it was possible to identify similar and diverging mechanisms which BRICS nations applied towards solving them. The results of the study indicate that a social realist ontology is also an applicable methodology for comparing challenges in the higher education sector and diverse educational governance responses to them by BRICS nations. The study highlights that in each nation, social structures including statutory bodies, culture, including those of citizens, as well as agency, including administrators and students, equally impacts on the efficacy of educational governance and its goals. The study concludes that by highlighting the powers of culture, social structures and agency in BRICS nation’s educational governance processes, member states may effectively direct necessary human, social and financial capital where they are needed in educational systems. Further, it was found that a social realist ontology enables BRICS nation-states to compare best practices of educational governance in the higher education sphere in order to learn from each other.

Keywords

Social Realism; Ontology; Higher Educational Governance; BRICS

pdf

References

  1. Amos, K. (2010). Governance and governmentality: Relation and relevance of two prominent social scientific concepts for comparative education. Educacao e Pesquisa, 36(SUPPL. 1). doi:10.1590/S1517-97022010000400003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022010000400003
  2. Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist social theory : the morphogenetic approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511557675 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511557675
  3. Archer, M.S. (2020). The Morphogenetic Approach; Critical Realism’s Explanatory Framework Approach. In P. Róna & L. Zsolnai L (Eds.), Agency and Causal Explanation in Economics. Virtues and Economics (pp. 137-150). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-26114-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26114-6
  4. Besudo, H., Tok, E., & Winters, K. (2013). South Africa in the BRICS Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects. Africa insight., 42(4), 1-15.
  5. Bhaskar, R. (1997). A realist theory of science. London: Verso. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203090732 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203090732
  6. Bhorat, H., Cassim, A., & Tseng, D. (2016). Higher education, employment and economic growth: Exploring the interactions. Development Southern Africa, 33(3), 312-327. doi:10.1080/0376835X.2016.1161501 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2016.1161501
  7. Boakye, N. (2015). The social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa: Bridging inequalities among the various language groups. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(234), 133-156. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2015-0008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2015-0008
  8. Calza, C., Anjos, M. J., Bueno, M. I. M. S., Lima, T. A., Lopes, R. T., th Topical Meeting on Industrial, R., & Radioisotope Measurement Applications, I.-H. O. C. (2007). EDXRF analysis of Marajoara pubic covers. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, B, 263(1), 245-248. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2007.04.099 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2007.04.099
  9. Chebanne, A. (2010). The Khoisan in Botswana - Can multicultural discourses redeem them? Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 5(2), 87-105. doi:10.1080/17447141003639801 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17447141003639801
  10. Eybers, O. O. (2018). Friends or foes? A theoretical approach towards constructivism, realism and students’ well-being via academic literacy practices. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(6), 251-269. doi:10.20853/32-6-2998 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20853/32-6-2998
  11. Eybers, O. O. (2019). Applying Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions to generate epistemic plurality in the curriculum. Transformation in Higher Education, 4(0), e1-e6. Retrieved from doi:10.4102/the.v4i0.68 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v4i0.68
  12. Ezzamel, M., & Hoskin, K. (2002). Retheorizing accounting, writing and money with evidence from Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 13(3), 333-367. https://doi.org/10.1006/cpac.2001.0500 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/cpac.2001.0500
  13. Douglas, B. (2018). Number of Brazilians Living in Poverty Rises 2 Million in a Year. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/number-of-brazilians-living-in-poverty-rises-2-million-in-a-year
  14. Fataar, A. (2003). Higher education policy discourse in South Africa : a struggle for alignment with macro development policy : perspectives on higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 17(2), 31-39. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v17i2.25295 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v17i2.25295
  15. Guenther, M. G. (1989). Bushman folktales : oral traditions of the Nharo of Botswana and the /Xam of the Cape. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH. https://doi.org/10.2307/1160128 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1160128
  16. Imran, A. Z. (2006). A framework and a methodology for developing authentic constructivist e-Learning environments. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 9(2), 198-212.
  17. Ismail, Z., & Kollamparambil, U. (2015). Youth Unemployment Duration and Competing Exit States: What Hides Behind Long Spells of Black Youth Unemployment in South Africa? African Development Review, 27(3), 301-314. doi:10.1111/1467-8268.12150 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8268.12150
  18. Kumar, R. R., Stauvermann, P. J., & Patel, A. (2016). Exploring the link between research and economic growth: an empirical study of China and USA. Quality & Quantity : International Journal of Methodology, 50(3), 1073-1091. doi:10.1007/s11135-015-0191-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0191-3
  19. Lo, V. I., Hiscock, M., & Edward Elgar, P. (2014). The rise of the BRICS in the global political economy : changing paradigms? Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.7202/1030136ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1030136ar
  20. Luescher, T., Loader, L., & Mugume, T. (2017). #FeesMustFall: An Internet-Age Student Movement in South Africa and the Case of the University of the Free State. Politikon, 44(2), 231-245. doi:10.1080/02589346.2016.1238644 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2016.1238644
  21. Mampane, R., Omidire, F., & Folake, R. (2018). Decolonising higher education in africa: Arriving at a glocal solution. South African Journal of Education, 38(4), 1-9. doi:10.15700/saje.v38n4a1636 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38n4a1636
  22. McCoy, D. B. (1959). Education in Brazil. Peabody Journal of Education, 37(1), 39-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01619565909536883
  23. Menon, K. (2015). Supply and Demand in South Africa. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9570-8_9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9570-8_9
  24. Mudur, S. P., Nayak, N., Shanbhag, S., & Joshi, R. K. (1999). An architecture for the shaping of Indic texts. Computers & Graphics, 23(1), 7-24. doi:10.1016/S0097-8493(98)00113-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0097-8493(98)00113-7
  25. Nabudere, D. W. (2006). Towards an Afrokology of knowledge production and African regeneration. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, 1(1), 7-32. doi:10.1080/18186870608529704 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18186870608529704
  26. Nayyar, D. (2016). BRICS, developing countries and global governance. Third World Quarterly, 37(4), 575-591. doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.1116365 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1116365
  27. Ooms, H., & Makoto, K. (1994). Introduction to "the nature of early tokugawa confucianism" by kurozumi makoto. Journal of Japanese Studies, 20(2), 331-331. doi:10.2307/133197 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/133197
  28. Ong, W. J. (1991). Orality and literacy : the technologizing of the word. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203328064 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203328064
  29. Peking University: World University Rankings. (2020). Retrieved on 3 March 2020 from, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/peking-university
  30. Porter, A. N. (1994). European imperialism, 1860-1914. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10544-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10544-1
  31. Rambiritch, A. (2018). A social justice approach to providing academic writing support. Educational Research for Social Change, 7, 46-50. https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i1a4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i1a4
  32. Riefstahl, E., & Davies, N. M. (1959). Picture Writing in Ancient Egypt. American Journal of Archaeology, 63(1), 89. doi:10.2307/502116 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/502116
  33. Rodney, W., Babu, A. M., & Harding, V. (1981). How Europe underdeveloped Africa (Rev. pbk. ed. ed.). Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/20048265 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/20048265
  34. Shchelkunov, M. D. (2014). The Bologna Process. Value Inquiry Book Series, 276.
  35. Smirnov, S. (2015). History of the moscow slavic-greek-latin academy. Norderstedt, Germany: Book on Demand Ltd.
  36. Thomas, H. C. L. (1993). Book Review: Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rituals. The Journal of Asian Studies, 52(3), 708-710.
  37. Vehmas, S., & Mäkelä, P. (2008). A realist account of the ontology of impairment. Journal of Medical Ethics, 34(2), 93-95. doi:10.1136/jme.2006.019042 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2006.019042
  38. Willmott, R. (1999). Structure, Agency and the Sociology of Education: Rescuing Analytical Dualism. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(1), 5-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425699995461 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425699995461
  39. Wolhuter, C. C. (2014). Research on HE in South Africa: stocktaking and assessment from international comparative perspectives. South African Journal of Higher Education, 28(1), 275-291. https://doi.org/10.20853/28-1-323 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20853/28-1-323

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.